After the frustration of being ripped off and being sold 5 yr old stock from retail outlets I have come to the realization that building my own PC could be a very rewarding option. And so I am reaching out to the tech community for your help.

I am looking to build a PC for each of my four children and myself, 5 in total. I have a budget of up to $600 per unit. What I am asking for is your help choosing parts. Using the following website www.centrecom.com.au, could you please suggest which compatible parts I should buy.

Firstly I should mention that I am interested in AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.1GHz 7MB Cache (AM3/ AM2+/ AM2*) - Black Edition, so any suggestions you could advise to go along with this processor would be great.

My children play online MMORPG's like WoW and Aion. We use Sonic foundry music software and Ulead video studio plus for home video editing, but nothing professional, just family fun use.

We live in Melbourne Australia and the website above represents the average prices available in this country. And after comparing their prices to the big retail outlets I know I'll be saving alot of money and getting better quality by building my own PC with your help.

I know it's a bit of a big ask for you to look into this for me, but you have no idea how appreciative I will be.

I did the best I could. The prices there are pretty high. And do not include operation system(You could surely look at getting a subscription at Technet, but I do not know much about it, someone else could surely help you). You do not have monitors, mouse or keyboards either. I also lowered from the Phenom II X2 550 to the 545 for 20$ cheaper, if you don't overclock, they will perform almost the same.

I tried to go as cheap as possible on the PSU(included with the Antec case), without going too cheap otherwise you'd have some problems.

I did not include a discrete graphic card for budget purpose. The integrated GPU should be enough to play Aion, but not enough to meet recommended settings. Playing Wow wouldn't be a problem.

Thankyou so much for the recommendations. Monitors and accessories aren't a problem I am happy to recycle what we have available and what I can pick up on the cheap. It was just the PC I need to put together. The build would suit our needs, as I mentioned we are not Hardcore gamers or anything just for family fun only. I'll leave the really techy stuff to my kids when they get old enough to create billion $$ software (lol). But the advice is invaluable and gives me a great insight as to what I should be aiming for, can't thankyou enough.

Damn, parts aren't cheap down under... Kilauea did a good job; what I would suggest now is to head to your closest Computer Hardware store with his list, show them the prices and specify you want 5 of them - and that you are expecting better pricing.

Now, here's something to think about: remove all DVD writers (68$ AUS!) from all builds and replace them with a single external drive like this one: Centre Com Online. Now that would allow you to have a GPU added to the builds, like this one: Centre Com Online.

Welcome aboard kinghaka. Forgive me for saying this, but judging by the prices, it looks like you're getting bent over down under. Good luck with your builds. Are you and the family going to put together an assembly line?

Damn, parts aren't cheap down under... Kilauea did a good job; what I would suggest now is to head to your closest Computer Hardware store with his list, show them the prices and specify you want 5 of them - and that you are expecting better pricing.

Now, here's something to think about: remove all DVD writers (68$ AUS!) from all builds and replace them with a single external drive like this one: Centre Com Online. Now that would allow you to have a GPU added to the builds, like this one: Centre Com Online.

Check it out.

Quick question. If I opt for the GPU will I need to upgrade the PSU? If so, what would you suggest?

Welcome aboard kinghaka. Forgive me for saying this, but judging by the prices, it looks like you're getting bent over down under. Good luck with your builds. Are you and the family going to put together an assembly line?

Thought about an assembly line however, unlike our asian counterparts, my children are very westernized and are demanding Union-ized work rates PLUS dental and leave! There goes the 20 rupees p/hr out the window